RECIPIENTS OF CHARLES E. BEVERIDGE FELLOWSHIP
2023
Loïc Massias, Paris, France
The Reception of Frederick Law Olmsted’s Park Systems in France: 1880 to 1945
This research project examines the circulation of knowledge and skills between the USA and France through the work of Frederick Law Olmsted and French landscape architects. Olmsted maintained close connections with many European landscape architects and may have influenced French landscape designers such as Édouard André, Jean-Claude Nicolas Forestier, Henri Prost and Jacques Grebér. While in the United States, Loïc Massias will be researching both theoretical and practical applied examples of Olmsted’s parks and park systems. This will include research at Fairsted on projects such as the Buffalo and Boston park systems as well as the contributions of Henry Codman, who studied with André before becoming a partner in the Olmsted firm.
2022
Annie Schentag, Buffalo, NY
Designs for ‘People Who Do Not Readily Intermingle:’ Deed Restrictions in the Olmsteds’ Residential Subdivisions. This study examines restrictive covenants in the Olmsted firm’s suburban subdivisions, implemented by Olmsted Sr. and then used with more explicit racial implications by Olmsted Jr. These deed restrictions regulated building requirements but also excluded specific racial, economic, and/or religious communities from these subdivisions. The extent to which these restrictions were made explicit, and precisely what they entailed, will be illuminated by archival research at the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site.
2021
Jonathan Kuhr, Malden, MA
Building Wilderness: Lessons from Olmsted’s Forest Landscapes. Jonathan will be studying the design, construction, and reception of the Olmsted office’s densely planted, urban woodlands, particularly the role such landscapes might play in creating spaces for people and programs otherwise marginalized by the prevailing forms of open space found in contemporary cities.
2016
Fadi Masoud, Cambridge, MA
Landscape’s Comprehensive Codes and Standards. This study grows from an interest in Frederick Law Olmsted Jr.’s influence on the crafting of legislation meant to arm planners in the twentieth century (and beyond) with “an enabling mechanism” to execute the kind of comprehensive designs commonly associated with Olmsted Sr.
2015
Christine O’Hara, Atascadero, CA
Proto-Ecological Planning by the Olmsted Brothers in 1920s Los Angeles: Using Georeferencing as a Mapping Tool to Understand Spatial Reasoning and Ecological Function. This study employs a combination of historical, ecological, and GIS technology approaches to consider the Olmsted firm’s Southern California projects with an emphasis on its engagement with natural systems in this arid climate. The Olmsted firm’s use of and engagement with ecological principles is an issue of renewed relevance as contemporary landscape architecture responds to an era of climate change.
Spencer Tunnell, Atlanta, GA
The Lesser Known Work of the Olmsted Firm in Atlanta: A Contextual Study A study of Peachtree Heights, Mims Park, and other less-well-known Atlanta projects, which have been overshadowed by Druid Hills, Grant Park, and Piedmont Park. Special attention to social period context, especially in framing Mims Park with the hardening of Jim Crow strictures.
2014
Jeongyon (Mimi) Kim, Atlanta, Georgia
The Small Parks of Frederick Law Olmsted: This project highlighted the contemporary relevance of small parks in dense urban areas in terms of enhancing social connectivity and providing environmental benefit. Projects included Charlesbank, Wood Island Park, Charlestown Heights, Charlestown Playground, North End Park, and Roxbury High Fort.
2013
Jennifer L. Thomas, Champaign, Illinois
Madness, Landscape and State-Craft: the Nineteenth Century Insane Asylum System of New York State (dissertation): Thomas’s research in the Fairsted archives provided critical primary source materials for her doctoral dissertation, with a particular focus on the designed landscapes associated with the first eight asylums developed in New York between 1843 and 1891. In addition to these eight asylums, Thomas investigated McLean Asylum (Belmont, MA), and Government Hospital for the Insane (St. Elizabeth’s, Washington, D.C.).
2012
Barton Ross, Livingston, New Jersey
The Olmsted Firm and the Natural Improvements of Montclair, 100 Years Later
This project explores the role of the Olmsted firm in Montclair, New Jersey. The firm was responsible for some twenty-two projects in the area; Ross used the Fellowship to conduct research on these projects, particularly Anderson Park, to determine how much of the original designed landscape is still intact and inform future planning and design decisions in the community.
CHARLES E. BEVERIDGE RESEARCH GRANTS
2021
Emily Vance, Charleston, WV
Olmsted Brothers and West Virginia University: A Contextualized Look at Woodburn Circle. Emily will be researching one of the Olmsted Brothers’ lesser-known projects: a proposed campus plan for West Virginia University in Morgantown (1898–1901). Her project seeks to confirm whether the Olmsted plans were acted upon and to amend the current National Register nomination of Woodburn Circle, WVU’s beloved quadrangle, to provide thorough landscape descriptions and context regarding the Olmsted Brothers’ role in its design.
2014
Sam E. Valentine, Cambridge, Massachusetts
What Lies Beneath: Documenting Buffalo’s Buried Quarry Garden and Envisioning its Rebirth: This project focused on a lost feature in Delaware Park, Buffalo, with the goal of informing restoration or interpretation of the Quarry Garden.